MMA: Jon Jones wants 6 months to prep for Aspinal

not much dana can do. the jones aspinall fight will be one of the biggest fights in ufc history and there are no relevant contenders at HW right now unless they go back and resign Francis, which I dont think they would do.

2-5 ranked fighters are

gane jones beat 3-2 in last 5 and both losses were for the belt
volkov aspinall beat and gane beat in last fight, 4-1 in last 5
pavlovich aspinall beat, 3-2 in last 5
blaydes aspinall beat in last fight, 3-2 in last 5

there just is no real contenders at HW its by far the weakest division in the organization. and 6-10 arent any better. all old and washed up.

quote:

---

Not if you want to keep your belt

---

they wont strip him there is nobody for aspinall to fight.

my guess is he returns for the msg card usually held in november.

quote:

---

Eh I would say Jones does have something to prove. Whether it means anything to him or not a lot of people look at his accomplishments as illegitimate due to his PED testing record. Legacy matters to most greats and he has an asterisk by his name to many.

---

Lol this is ridiculous, people that are in that camp won't change their minds because of an Aspinal fight.

I'm 50/50 on this fight ever happening, but it's probably not happening until the rights fee negotiation ends.

quote:

---

Nobody in the UFC "earns their right" to hold up an entire division for 2-3 yrs and rob one of the top upcoming, extremely marketable star in the making of his prime years.

---

I didn't say he has earned the right to keep the belt. Dana can decide that. But he has earned the right to fight when and who he wants.

quote:

---

McGregors is just based on eyeballs he draws.

---

I'd say that's a pretty big deal...

quote:

---

not happening until the rights fee negotiation ends.

---

for sure. ufc will hold those cards for the negotiation along with conor.

quote:

---

Jones has ducked Aspinal and will continue to duck him. There will be an "injury" 3-4 weeks out from fight date and Jones will still retain the belt.

---

If Jones goes another calendar year without defending, there would be an outright mutiny. There’s no where else for Jon to run this year except for Aspinall or retirement.

If you ask me, Jones is hurting rather than helping his legacy with these choices in the twilight of his career.

Gane wilted so completely against Jones that you have to ask if it was even an impressive win for Jones to beat him.

Everyone knew the fight against an over-the-hill Stipe was Jones cherry-picking an easy title defense--and that's exactly what it turned out to be. Jones insisted on this fight even though Aspinall was the interrim champ the entire time.

The Pereira fight has gone up in smoke. The Nngannou fight, which conveniently never happened because Jones was arguing about money--and then he accused Nngannou of ducking when Nngannou was trying to work out a new contract--the Nngannou-Jones fight will never happen.

So it's either fight Aspinall or retire. Jones claimed that Aspinall is not enough of a 'name' fighter to be worthy of a match, so by that logic, it wouldn't make a difference to his legacy even if he were to win against Aspinall. If it's not worth it to beat a 'no-name' fighter, then why not retire?

It just comes off like Jones is phony and self-indulgent and wants to cling to relevance as long as he can. And worst of all, like he's afraid to fight Aspinall.

Pereira is the same age as Jones. Pereira just fought 3 or 4 times in a calendar year. Jones has had 2 fights in the last 5 years.